Fetal infection with CMV is the most common cause of intrauterine infection. Only 40% of pregnant women with primary CMV transmit the virus to their fetus. Many of these women are referred to amniocentesis and many elect to terminate pregnancy without knowledge about fetal infection or damage. Currently it is assumed that transmission is dictated by variety of factors including maternal and fetal immune system. Efforts to find correlation between maternal immune system and fetal infection which can be used as a diagnostic marker were unsuccessful.

Our hypothesis is that there is a correlation between cellular immune response of the mother to CMV infection and viral transmission to the fetus.

Pregnant women with primary CMV infection (40% of whom are expected to be transmitters)and with pre-conception immunity will participate in this study.

Blood from these women will be incubated with CMV peptides and T cell activation will be measured by the secretion of various cytokines.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 50 Years

Genders Eligible for Study:

Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

Yes

Sampling Method:

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Pregnant women with primary CMV

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Pregnant women

CMV IgG sero-conversion or the presence of low avidity IgG antibodies or the presence of IgM with no previous IgG antibodies.

Exclusion Criteria:

Underlying immune deficiencies

Other pregnancy complications

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01081379